BP Propaganda Campaign

[yeahwho]

I noticed a few days ago when I googled info about the BP Gulf spill the very first item on my search was link to friend BP to your facebook page.

As if BP Corporation is our hero.

Then today I read why this is happening. Not only have they manipulated our government with hard cold cash, they now want to use the most powerful search engine available (http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0609/Gulf-oil-spill-To-control-message-BP-buys-search-terms-from-Google) to manipulate you.

We need to fucking stand up here and be heard. I cannot believe what is happening while 100,000's perhaps millions of gallons of oil is dumped into the Gulf.

Fuck You Google.

[kaiser soze]

yeah, I'm starting my best to boycott Google for selling out to BP - fuck them both

here is an alternate search engine

www.ixquick.com

only if it was just as easy to choose an alternative to oil

I was going to add another horrific photo montage to this thread but all it does is depress everyone. Heads at BP should be rolling soon for conspiracy on top of fucking up our environment - fuck them up the ass with a dead oil covered pelican.

(n)

[yeahwho]

I'm so pissed off I'm not writing correctly. Eleven people are killed. The Gulf is being destroyed. This is epic. The remorse factor of those who stood to profit is 0. They think that money will solve the damage, that all of this will go away with money.

The option put in place to safeguard humans, sea life and wildlife is money. The preventive measure to safeguard the Gulf and environment is money.

I guess the theory being we are either going to make money or lose money, fuck everybody else and their planet.

What sort of bullshit is this, I know Obama capped on them once already for spending $50 million on advertising while destroying our planet. This is the moment of truth for the Oil Industry and the citizens of the USA.

And Fuck You Google. Give BP their blood money back.

[yeahwho]

BP Using Google To Manipulate Public Opinion (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacqueline-leo/bp-using-google-to-manipu_b_598677.html)

According to Scott Slatin, who runs a New York-based search marketing company, "While we have seen corporations use search-engine marketing to sway opinions, most recently in the health-care debate, it is always under the cover of a non-profit or lobbying organization. This is the first time I have seen a company use this tactic on such a wide scale. And it is very effective, because BP gets its message, 'Learn more about how BP is helping' atop almost every Google search permutation related to the spill, and effectively blocks non-profits (with much smaller pockets) from getting their message across."

The strategy appears to be working, as BP's ads show up on neutral searches like "spill," "gulf oil," "offshore oil," "oil spill," "Louisiana coast spill" and "oil cleanup," but not "oil disaster." And the costs? Slatin says, "I'd estimate that BP is spending at least $7,500 a day to own the top position on searches related to the oil spill on Google, and another $3,000 a day to cover both Yahoo and MSN's Bing." In April, says Slatin, the number of searches on Google for "oil spill" was 2,240,000, versus a 12-month average of 301,000.

Unlike you or me, if I caused an accidental death (multiple deaths) destroyed livelihoods, poisoned millions upon millions of birds, fish and plants, BP just feels like it's a good time to spend money talking about how really cool the are in the media.

Fuck Me.

[kaiser soze]

ya know, if most of us just hurt the feelings of one of our clients we would be out of a job - Every exec of BP should be out of a job, their stock options locked, preparing for their testimony and subsequent jail terms.

BP should no longer have any hand in the cleanup and PR - They've lost all credibility.

check out this website

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/

I wish I knew where Tony Hayward lived, all the Gulf States should leave piles of oil covered animals on his front doorstep - he is a scum rat and looks the part.

[yeahwho]

I don't think everyone at BP wants catastrophe to ensue when drilling for oil, in fact I doubt it. But I do know they want massive profits to ensue always. The motivation is money for shareholders and especially elected corporate officers.

The offensiveness is in a lack of remorse and the ability to STFU after destroying lives and environment. It is beyond the pale. Trying to be facebook friends? WTF eleven people were outright killed, this will be proven as negligence in a court of law. I have no doubt.

We all would of been shit canned, in jail or stalked to the end of the earth if we did this, the price of business needs to be re-assessed. Most definitely a moratorium on corporate ads should be shunned by those with an ethical code. Would Google et;al let me place ads before a court case?

It's very controversial and personally I'm sickened by BP's tactics.

[Documad]

BP's website regarding their response is entertaining though. They have photos of people in yellow boots picking litter up off a clean beach. It's no big deal. It's like when the county sends teenagers out to clean up highways.

[kaiser soze]

I noticed that on their site - all nice and clean

they are fucked - if not their dreams will be - all the money in the world won't save them from their nightmares

[yeahwho]

yeah i checked it all out,

Look!!! Two helicopters with rope (http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055)!!! Finally!!! Go BP!!!

[yeahwho]

Wow I found some subliminal pics (http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/bp.jpg) on their site.

[Adam]

Its not all the surprising tho is it really? Which must is almost as sad (that its not surprising cus its what we'd expect).

This could of happened to any oil company, BP was just unlucky in that respect. We all reaped what BP et al sowed. We all complained about petrol/gas prices when they go up, rejoice when they come down, refuse to change our habits when we knew oil wouldn't last forever. We all hoped and pray that no bad oil spill would happen again. We all buy the cheapest groceries rather than local produce. I do the same and I like to think I am more aware than the majority on it.

Not excusing anything, but as a collective we are to blame. I'd love to see a worldwide tax on the environmental damage companies & people cause with similar fines when something insane like this happens. But how many would vote any government in that would promise to triple the cost travel overnight and keep it rising until we can get a better system in place? We can't think long term, so shit like this will always happen. But I do think humans are good innovating at the last minute so I think we'll wait until about a day before the planet is about to be destroyed and all of a sudden find the resources to change and 10 years down the line go "oh, that wasn't so bad, why the fuck didn't we do that 50 years ago in a less brutal way" and then we can feel guilty for the 1000s of species we could of saved in that time /rant

So now we don't use Esso and BP right? Soon every company will be on that list.

[Burnout18]

On June 10, 2010 i googled "oil spill" and discovered two news articles on on BP's financial performance, including shares falling on oil spill news. The link to wiki's definition of an oil spill, a link to pictures of the oil spill, then video and picture image results for oil spill(http://www.freewebs.com/matthewstolte/Oil_Spill!_by_Berger.jpg). Then this may 3rd aticle (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04enviro.html). Website titled "disaster in the gulf" and "Oil approaches louisianna" and another environmental group's definition of an oil spill.

And finally i see "BP says 'top kill' a failure"...

Sorry but i don't see the propaganda campaign or why i should boycott google.

And i agree with Adam almost 100%... good post dude.

[HAL 9000]

I do see the ads when I do a search on the spill. I also see an ad showing how I can donate to help the environmental campaign (is Google charging for that? - if not good for them).

I think I am with Adam on this. It would be wrong to view BP as run by purely evil execs. As with any company, the board is contracted to maximise shareholder returns, and they have been successful at that. If, in achieving this objective, they create unacceptable externalities for society as a whole, then it is a failure of regulation for not pricing those externailities into the company's running costs.

The failure of regulation is no doubt due, in part, to the effective lobbying by oil companies to reduce that regulation in line with their shareholder maximisation objective (and herein lies the core weakness with capitalism).

I dont think you can really blame BP for undertaking a marketing campaign to repair their reputation. Remember that they are fighting to protect the wealth of their shareholders, and, for the most part, those shareholders are not Monty Burns, they are working and middle class people with pensions.

[yeahwho]

A nice advertisement would be a upfront apology. To the families of those dead and maimed. To the taxpayers for the expense of combating this travesty and for the asinine thinking that went into this and all of the other ventures that ended up in death, destruction and irreparable damage.

A commitment to the environment beyond a green and yellow spirograph corporate logo. with the money of the cost of the ad tripled and donated to one of the green activist agencies they are denying access with their current cash flow through the internet.

Even then I am not convinced that BP would not be happier with the whole Gulf being a dead zone. Then they have decades of oil to pillage without any environmental consequences.

That is as mainstream as I can become and I feel like I'm being overtly generous.

Lock them up. Throw out the key and start going after the rest of those who neglect proper science in protecting our planet.

[yeahwho]

On June 10, 2010 i googled "oil spill" and discovered two news articles on on BP's financial performance, including shares falling on oil spill news. The link to wiki's definition of an oil spill, a link to pictures of the oil spill, then video and picture image results for oil spill(http://www.freewebs.com/matthewstolte/Oil_Spill!_by_Berger.jpg). Then this may 3rd aticle (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04enviro.html). Website titled "disaster in the gulf" and "Oil approaches louisianna" and another environmental group's definition of an oil spill.

And finally i see "BP says 'top kill' a failure"...

Sorry but i don't see the propaganda campaign or why i should boycott google.

And i agree with Adam almost 100%... good post dude.

I think your looking beyond the very first entry, it is June 10th, 2010 here in the USA on the west coast... the search on most every search engine ends up with first response BP, they are battling those who are trying to hold them responsible through citizen action

I ain't fucking with anyone here, BP is.. This is the way they do.

Google (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=oil%20spill&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nw&fp=e82bcfdcd0a14d67)

Yahoo (http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGdEObNhFMDhgA.RKl87UF;_ylc=X1MDMjE0 MjQ3ODk0OARfcgMyBGZyA3NmcARuX2dwcwMxMARvcmlnaW4Dc3 ljBHF1ZXJ5A29pbCBzcGlsbARzYW8DMQ--?p=oil+spill&fr=sfp&fr2=&iscqry=)

Bing (http://www.bing.com/search?q=oil+spill&go=&form=QBLH&qs=n&sk=)

Check them all out, try variations such as gulf disaster etc...

The media is trying to tell you... but they are beholden to their own corporate bottom line. The NYTimes has had BP as a customer many millions of dollars worth for many years. Don't friend BP on your facebook, don't buy into this.

What possible good to humankind does BP have planned with spending money to thwart environmentalists and volunteer groups from investigating BP's disregard for everything most of us hold sacred?

[yeahwho]

yeah, I'm starting my best to boycott Google for selling out to BP - fuck them both

here is an alternate search engine

www.ixquick.com

only if it was just as easy to choose an alternative to oil(n)

Alternate in name, not in systematic paid propaganda.

Ixquick (http://us2.ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?) type in oil spill

BP is not playing games, they have saturated not only the Gulf with carcinogenic waste, they are after your media, your every search into an answer for their lack of regard towards our lives.

[Burnout18]

I think your looking beyond the very first entry

yes, you are totally right. I always look past those adds no matter if im searching for porn, trivia answers or oil spills. My bad.

But still, its not as though google is hiding the reality of the situation.

[yeahwho]

co-opting the media or a search engine through a purchased ad campaign does change the dynamic of not only perception to those who use these tools, it does change the medias perception too.

BP is not throwing money at greenpeace. BP is throwing money at those who provide links to greenpeace and connect to those who report their misdeeds in the media.

As unlikely as it may seem to me and as comfortable as you may feel about this, there is no denying the search for Gulf Oil Spill news is sponsored by those who caused it. They are paying to soften the story. They are creating the story and as savvy as you or I may be it does not make it right.

We are being manipulated by blood money. It's disgusting. The Petrol industry has regulated itself to the point of basically being part of the media.

I like to keep an eye on this type of purchase that effects real news. It's important. It means something more than just an ad.